Two hundred lucky visitors were the first to meet Camperdown Wildlife Centre’s three new bears this morning.
The bears – Brumm, Maja and Brumma – are 22-month old siblings who arrived at Camperdown from Kolmarden Zoo in Sweden in November.
It was the public’s first chance to see the three bears, who had been given a 30-day settling-in period before their unveiling.
The decision to introduce the new bears was taken after one of the park’s two brown bears, a male named Comet, died suddenly in August.
This left a 30-year-old female, Star — who has been at the centre since the late 1980s — on her own.
The new bears are currently occupying a separate enclosure next door to Star, and Katie Mather, zoo keeper at the centre, said it was important to give the bears time to integrate.
She said: “It will be important to assess when to fully integrate the bears with Star and there isn’t really a timescale for this to happen.
“Currently, Star is in a separate enclosure at the back of the one occupied by the three new bears but they will eventually live side-by-side when we are confident that the time is right.”
All 200 tickets for Wednesday’s event were snapped up within 15 minutes when they were released in December.
